ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Beautiful serendipity: How a fateful Boracay trip leads to Hollis-Jefferson, TNT's title-winning partnership

Beautiful serendipity: How a fateful Boracay trip leads to Hollis-Jefferson, TNT's title-winning partnership

Published Apr 22, 2023 05:53 am
A beautiful serendipity between Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and TNT all began with the former's fateful trip to Boracay which eventually led him to play for the Tropang Giga and help the team hoist their first PBA Governors’ Cup title.

*Rondae Hollis-Jefferson powers through the defense of Justin Brownlee and Japeth Aguilar during TNT's title-clinching 97-93 win over Ginebra in Game 6 (Noel Pabalate)

*

It wasn’t planned but everything seamlessly fell into place. Back then, Hollis-Jefferson went on a trip to the famous Boracay island to take a break from the Korean Basketball League. That time, the relationship between the NBA veteran and his Korean team was falling apart due to his limited minutes and wanted to try playing somewhere else. “We had five days off in Korea, so I was just looking for places to go and I just so happened to end up in Boracay,” Hollis-Jefferson recalled.  “And things weren't working out in Korea, so I talked to my agent, I was like, 'Hey, is there anything else available?' And that's when the PBA thing kind of came about,” he added. His agent got in touch with Lastimosa, who aside from being the coach also serves as TNT’s team manager.  Getting a chance to tap an import of Hollis-Jefferson's caliber, Lastimosa didn’t think twice even with the looming dilemma of trying to replace then TNT reinforcement Jalen Hudson, who for his part, was not exactly doing bad after leading the Tropang Giga to a 5-1 start in the conference. By the time Hollis-Jefferson returned to Korea, he immediately asked for a release from his team and returned to the Philippines even without any assurance of signing a contract with TNT. "I flew here before I even had a contract. I just like, put faith in (Lastimosa), so it worked out for the best," he said. “He flew over here in January and went to Boracay by himself, then went back to Korea. Alam niya na may tournament dito. And he told his agent, 'Hey, I want to go to the Philippines.' Without me knowing, somebody called me and said, 'Hey, Rondae is in a hotel, he flew in.' I didn't even say that he could come, but he (already) did,” explained Lastimosa. The rest as they say was history. Hollis-Jefferson took the PBA by storm and made sure TNT made the right choice of choosing him over Hudson.  He went on to lead the team to the Finals, winning the Best Import award over Justin Brownlee and dropping a triple-double of 32 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists in the pivotal Game 5 of the Finals series. He then followed it up with 29 points in the title-clinching Game 6 as he joined hands with Mikey Williams who erupted for 38 to steer TNT to its first Governors’ Cup title which incidentally Hollis-Jefferson’s first professional title as well.

Related Tags

TNT Tropang Giga PBA champions Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.